General Laura Richardson, CO of SouthCom, speaks

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The usual gig when I post these links - the banner is in Castellano, and the story will initially appear in that language when you click the link, but if you wait 3 seconds or so, it will change to English.

General Laura Richardson, commander of SouthCom, speaks to the Atlantic Council about the nature of US interests in Latin America. In listing the resources of this continent, she says "we have..." over and over, as though those resources already belonged to the USA. Then again, to be fair, some of this is typical of the military mind. When your only tool is a hammer...

Evo Morales replied on Twitter, saying, "We remind the head of the US Southern Command, Laura Richardson, that Latin America is not your backyard or your farm to exploit natural resources. Faced with the new Yankee interventionist threat, we reiterate that the free peoples of the Patria Grande will defend their sovereignty."

Morales' comment makes good press and all that, but in terms of military potential, all of Latin America is fairly impotent, with the lone exception of Brazil, which is surprisingly formidable. If you look at the Global Firepower annual report for 2023, Brazil ranks 12th in the world, yet with some serious weaknesses.
 
evo morales with his usual verbal diarrhea ..

nobody is coming to latin america to steal resources. but if the country decides it want to open up its resources for foreign investment (see Vaca Muerta), that's the foreign companies' fault for exploiting?

also, nobody bats at eye at china and what they are up to! but yanquis bad..
 

The usual gig when I post these links - the banner is in Castellano, and the story will initially appear in that language when you click the link, but if you wait 3 seconds or so, it will change to English.

General Laura Richardson, commander of SouthCom, speaks to the Atlantic Council about the nature of US interests in Latin America. In listing the resources of this continent, she says "we have..." over and over, as though those resources already belonged to the USA. Then again, to be fair, some of this is typical of the military mind. When your only tool is a hammer...

Evo Morales replied on Twitter, saying, "We remind the head of the US Southern Command, Laura Richardson, that Latin America is not your backyard or your farm to exploit natural resources. Faced with the new Yankee interventionist threat, we reiterate that the free peoples of the Patria Grande will defend their sovereignty."

Morales' comment makes good press and all that, but in terms of military potential, all of Latin America is fairly impotent, with the lone exception of Brazil, which is surprisingly formidable. If you look at the Global Firepower annual report for 2023, Brazil ranks 12th in the world, yet with some serious weaknesses.
General Laura Richardson speech on LATAM resources. China is here to undermine Democracy!

 
Is this a different speech than the one she gave at the Aspen Security Forum? I remember it getting attention last year...

IR and LatAm Studies was what I studied in university so I have a few things to say...

- She's saying the quiet part out loud instead of in hushed tones that usually happen behind doors on K Street in D.C./Foggy Bottom/SouthCom
- If this is surprising to you, you haven't been paying attention
- Latin America and Africa have always been seen as the United States' and Europe's respective labor and natural resource depositories, and
from American and European prospectives, these continents have become increasingly and inconveniently populated with locals who either
don't want to give up the natural resources, work for pennies on the dollars, or most frighteningly, migrate to the US or Europe
- Pagina K, dumb as always, has only a superficial understanding of what this about (i.e. she's not on a hot mic talking about a plan to invade Bolivia, let alone Argentina, the K's dear leader Albertudo has been happily letting Foreign Magaminning projects in, see Chubut in 2021)
- What she is talking about is the competition between Russia, China, the United States, and European Union to gain access to natural resources around the globe
- She's couching the competition in terms as one of "Western Liberal Democracy v.s. Authoritarian State Capitalism" which is funny considering the United States and Europe has couped everything and everyone between Lima and Libya and Tijuana and Tanzania
- The US and Australia recently got their panties in a knot because the Solomon Islands signed a security agreement with China, the US Expressed concern from Port Moresby, in PNG because there isn't even a US embassy in the Solomon Islands, they shut it down in 1993
- The Solomon Islands' response to the US was basically "Do you guys have a better offer?" the US's counter was "We'll open our embassy again"

In here lies the problem that the brightest minds in the Harry Truman Building don't seem to get: if China is offering the Belt and Road Initiative and AIIB to finance important infrastructure projects countries want, they don't care what your domestic politics are, and they'll basically write down massive chunks of the debt/do currency swaps to improve relations, vs. the West which just wrings their hands about human rights (while American Cops kill unarmed black people and Australia was committing war crimes in Afghanistan) while offering predatory IMF loans which do you think countries are going to pick?

I'm constantly reminded of this Tweet whenever these topics come up; if the West wants to win hearts and minds maybe start offering to build roads, bridges, hospitals, and the like for developing countries? Bolivia knows China wants it's lithium for batteries as much as the US does, the difference is China doesn't back right wing Christian fascists like Jeanine Áñez, and they build you a railway while you sell them them the lithium; China calls this Win-Win Diplomacy (合作共赢 - Hezuo gong ying, literally "win-win co-operation")

277805747_346539067500220_385040436770319923_n.png
 
Today's 'woke' Army leadership i.e. Milley and Austin, IMHO, is unimpressive. This is not George Patton's army, or that of Ulysses S. Grant or Andrew Jackson. Far from it. I would be skeptical of anything she says. If I cared.
 
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